WANT TO CLEAN THIS HARD DRIVE

[GP35]

I WONDER IF SOMEONE CAN POINT ME TO AN ARTICLE, OR TELL ME HOW I MIGHT DO THIS. I HAVE A PERFECTLY GOOD MAXTOR HARD DRIVE THAT WAS RUNNING IN MY COMPUTER WHEN THE MOTHERBOARD DIED. I HAVE BUILT A NEW COMPUTER AND IT IS UP AND RUNNING. WHAT I WANT TO DO IS COMPLETELY ERASE EVERYTHING THAT IS ON THIS HARD DRIVE. IT IS NO LONGER ATTACHED TO ANY COMPUTER . ANY ADVICE WOULD BE HELPFUL....

[vibe666]

plug it into the new computer and format it. that simple.

if you want to make sure (for security reasons) that no data is recoverable on that drive you can do it the simple way by going into DOS and doing an unconditional format by making sure you have the right drive letter (C: will be your main boot drive you really don't want to format this. trust me) it might be d: unless you have more than 1 partition on your system drive. but change to that drive and check first to see whats on it. the easiest way is from within windows itself in my computer.

then you need to do an unconditional format which will go something like this (without the quotes) 'format d: /u' assuming that d: is the drive you want to format.

other than that there are utilities available that will do a proper job of writing over the data several times before formatting it and if done right it will never be recoverable, not even by specialists.

if you're just going to use the drive again then just plug it in and quick format it with windows like you would a floppy disk, and then you can use it again.

***viBe***

PS sorry if I've not been too clear on this if you need more help I'm sure someone will jump to your assistance if you ask. I've got the flu and my head's a bit fuzzy.

[GP35]

DON'T I HAVE TO SET THE JUMPERS OR SOMETHING ON THIS HARD DRIVE BEFORE I INSTALL IT? ALSO, CAN I HOOK IT UP ALONE ON THE 2ND CHANNEL?????

[Atomic Rooster]

If you run it as a slave with your current HDD on the first IDE channel, then you have to change the jumpers to the slave position. Yes, you can attach it to the second IDE channel by itself without changing jumpers.

[GP35]

WELL, I TRIED TO HOOK IT UP TO THE 2ND CHANNEL AND MY COMPUTER WOULD NOT LOAD WINDOWS98. IT WENT TO THE BOOT UP SCREEN, SAID NO DRIVES DETECTED AND THEN STOPPED. ANY SUGGESTIONS???????

[rextex]

Check the cable to the 1st drive.Reconnect things to the way they were before when it was working.Reboot.
If every works shut down and set the jumper drive that you want to erase to "slave".
Check that the Main working drive is set to "master".
Conect the drive to erase to the open connector on the cable the Main drive is on.Reboot.
Enter the Bios setup program and "autodetect hard disk drives" ONLY if it doesn't do so automatically during boot up.
(Most recent motherboards do so automatically - you should see the drives master and slave and their type and size on the initial boot up screen.)

Then check back here for more info need to know your O.S. - Win 98, etc. ?

[RenaissanceMan]

Hey, you might find some useful information here
http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;Q255867

hope this helps!